President Muhammadu Buhari stopped National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun from replying the Chairman of the APC Reconciliation Committee, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in the same way reflected in the letter he sent to the party boss.
This was according to a member of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), as reported by Independent.
Buhari had last week summoned Oyegun to a meeting over the leaked letter in which Tinubu accused the party chairman of sabotaging his presidential mandate of reconciling aggrieved members of the party.
The meeting was held less than 24 hours after Tinubu’s letter to the national chairman, in which he accused Odigie-Oyegun of sabotaging his efforts aimed at reconciling aggrieved party members as directed by the president.
The source reportedly said, “There is no truth in the report that President Buhari, during his meeting with the national chairman, asked members of the National Working Committee to fully cooperate with Asiwaju Tinubu and give him everything he (Tinubu) asked for in carrying out the reconciliation assignment.”
The source added: “During the meeting, the president simply told Odigie-Oyegun to ignore him and not reply him in like manner.
“He believed Asiwaju’s letter had already caused the party a great embarrassment and matters will get worse if Odigie-Oyegun replied him in like manner.
“That is why Odigie-Oyegun’s reply to Tinubu was very brief, and if you notice he never spoke with newsmen after the meeting with the president.
“It was part of what they discussed, because anything he said, the press may misinterpret or misquote him.
“But for the president’s intervention who asked him to ignore Tinubu, Odigie-Oyegun would have given it back to him fire-for-fire.”
A source in the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the feeling of some members of the party was that while Tinubu should be given all he required to carry out his assignment successfully, he should not take undue advantage of the situation to get even with Odigie-Oyegun and other exco members.
“I can tell you that there is a division within the APC camp over Tinubu’s request that the Odigie-Oyegun-led exco must vacate office in place of a caretaker committee.
“Many of our members believe the reconciliation team should be a given free hand to carry out its task without inhibition, especially given the fact that the election is just around the corner.
“Though we are not sure of what transpired between Odigie-Oyegun and the president last week, we believe President Buhari should consider the interest of the party first and not allow some few individuals constitute an impediment to the peace building process.
“However, there are others who believe that Tinubu is trying to take advantage of the opportunity given him to punish Odigie-Oyegun who he has been having a running battle with.
“These ones believe that he can carry out the assignment without asking the NWC to resign,” he said.
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